The Reigning Lorelai
by AntariansSlayer
Summary: Rory comes home to Stars Hollow for something she is not prepared for in the slightest. This is not set around 'The Reigning Lorelai' episode in season 4, but it is important. This is my first Gilmore Girls fic, so please be nice!


**Summary: **Rory comes home to Stars Hollow for something she is not prepared for in the slightest. This is not set around 'The Reigning Lorelai' episode in season 4, but it is important. This is my first Gilmore Girls fic, so please be nice!

**Rating: **PG13, just in case.

**Spoilers: **All of the seasons.

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing of Gilmore Girls; that pleasure is solely for ASP and her team, the CW, etc.

**Warning! **I don't want to give anything away, but please don't hate me at the end of this story!

**Oh by the way, I live in England so that is why some of the spellings are different.**

~***~

"Welcome to Stars Hollow" she sighed as she passed the sign into town. _Welcome back is more like it_, she thought with another sigh, _I can't believe it's been 10 years_.

As she drove through the town square, she saw that everywhere was shut, giving off the appearance of a ghost town; even the normally open sliding door of Miss Patty's studio was locked. She knew it would look like this, certain of it in fact. Another thing she was certain of is where everyone was at this point in time.

Instead of heading towards in that direction, she headed down the road and took a right at the rooster. The familiar house that had been her home for most of her life until she went to Yale came into view almost instantly. She saw that her mother's jeep was still parked in its resident place under the trees, but couldn't see Luke's truck anywhere.

Stopping the car, she got out and leaned against the cool window taking in the view of the flowerless garden and rotting porch.

***************

"So do you think the porch is falling apart or do you just weigh a ton?"

"The porch is fine. It just has a little extra ventilation in it now, that's all."

"The wood is old and rotting."

"The wood is not old and rotting, it is strong and sprightly and will be with us for a long, long time to come."

"So you do weigh a ton?"

*********

"I was so mixed up."

"I should have pulled you out of there."

"I was stupid!"

"No, I was stupid!"

"I was more stupid!"

"Uh, boy, time to get you back to Yale!"

"I love you, Mum."

"Oh, kid, you have no idea."

***************

She found the spare key in its usual place (the turtle) and used it to open the door; she still had her key, but didn't want to use it in case she found the locks had been changed, she couldn't bear the thought. The first thing she saw was the sofa, reminding her of movie nights and heart to hearts.

***************

"I'm ready to wallow now."

***************

She bypassed the stairs, not quite ready to venture into her mother's room. She headed into the kitchen instead. It actually looked used now but she guessed that was Luke's doing rather than her mum's.

***************

"Man, that's weird."

"What's weird?"

"The thought of Luke running around naked in my kitchen. It's weird."

"Luke is not running around naked in your kitchen. He is sitting at the table, and, yes, he is naked."

"He sounds naked."

***************

When she opened the door to her old room, it was like stepping into another world long forgotten. Her mum had kept it exactly as she had left it; it didn't include a lot of her belongings but did include the 'Harvard-turned-Yale' wall.

***************

"Ah, Harvard."

"Yeah. We started the obsession board a few years ago."

***************

Looking at the bed she was instantly reminded of what happened there, and with hindsight, realized that was where it all started to go wrong between her and her mother.

***************

"He wasn't cheating."

"He was cheating, and you were cheating with him. There's no other way to spin that, kid."

"I'm not spinning it, and I'm not a kid. I'm 19."

"It's just not the way your first time was supposed to be."

"My first time was with someone sweet and kind who loves me."

"I didn't raise you to be the kind of girl who sleeps with someone else's husband."

"You slept with dad when he was with Sherry."

"So, this is all my fault? I just don't want you to get hurt, Rory."

"You're just mad because I didn't come running to you..."

***************

Wanting to block that out, she ran up the stairs towards her mother's room and didn't stop until she was perched on her mum's side of the bed. The room was just as messy as ever even with Luke's influence, but she figured for the past couple of weeks Luke hasn't been caring about much, let alone something so insignificant as a tidy room. She can't even remember how many conversations she had with her mum in here, but she was pretty sure there weren't any arguments.

Seeing something out of the corner of her eye, she turned and had to laugh at the sight of three ribbons tied together-one pink, one blue, and one purple wedged in between them. _I wonder if Kirk knows where the missing blue and pink ribbons were_, she thought as she laid down, _That had to be mum's doing_. She still remembers clearly the day she got the phone call and rushed home to her mum's aid.

***************

"Mum? What happened?"

"Luke. He's gone! He hates me."

"He'll come around. He waited forever for you. He's not just going to walk away."

"It's over."

"Mum, this isn't you."

"You should go to school. Go back to school."

"I'm here. I'm staying."

***************

"God that was so long ago" she mumbled as she buried her head into her mother's pillow and allowed her eyes to slowly close.

She knew she shouldn't go to sleep-she didn't want anyone to find her after all-but being surrounded by her mum's things and the lingering smell of her perfume on her pillow forced her to surrender to a dream world.

~***~

She woke up, disorientated, and it took her a moment to figure out where she was. The fuzzy alarm clock on the bedside table told her that she had been asleep for almost an hour.

_It must have finished by now_, she thought. She was just thankful that no one had thought to come here after. The whole town would've known she was here by now. Glancing out the window as she got up, she did a double take.

Snow.

In Springtime.

She knew this was her mum's doing. It had to snow today no matter what. She hadn't liked watching snow for the past ten years because it brought back bittersweet memories of simpler times.

Giving herself a few more minutes to take in her mother's bedroom for most probably the last time, and the view of the snow from the window, she turned around and left. She had to make one more stop; it was after all the reason she came here today.

~***~

Driving through town this time round she saw one solitary building alive with activity. It was Luke's of course, where else would they have the gathering but her and her mum's second home, their kitchen?

She drove by quickly willing no one to see her. _God what a mess my life has become_, she thought. The light from the newly lit streetlights gleamed off her left ring finger. She didn't even know why she wore it anymore. When she graduated Yale she said yes to Logan's proposal and moved to California with him. She knew her mum didn't approve, and in the end she was shown to be right in her judgement-her husband acted as free and single as the day she met him.

She wanted to leave him, fight him for custody of their children, and be free from him, but she just didn't have the fire within her anymore. It had been temporarily ignited after she continued her studying, but gradually disappeared in time, finally being well and truly snuffed out the second the strip turned blue. That was a year into her marriage and the day she found out about Logan's first affair. She was all set to leave him and come home to Stars Hollow, but then she found out she was pregnant. She just didn't have the heart to get rid of an innocent human being like that and she stayed, but her mum begged her to leave Logan. She wished she had now.

She doesn't actually know why she stayed but as the years went by her conversations with her mum became shorter and more trivial because without fail if they talked about what was really bothering them they would argue. The time between each visit to Stars Hollow got longer and longer until eventually she stopped going and her mum stopped visiting her as well. _I guess we never really healed properly from the months long fight we had before_, she thought.

Without realizing it she had arrived at her destination. She got out of her car and walked towards the front gate, dreading it the entire time. She didn't know where it would be so she looked for the usual signs you see after such an event as today.

Snow crunched under her feet as she walked on the footpath towards the mass amount of empty chairs surrounding the slightly risen earth. She collapsed to her knees and brushed the soft dusting of snow off the slab of granite before her.

_Lorelai Victoria Gilmore-Danes_

_Born-1968 Died-2017_

_Loving Wife, Mother, and Child_

_The World Is A Brighter Place Because Of Her_

Reading the words over and over again didn't make them anymore real; her mum, her best friend was dead. Tears streamed down her face, but she didn't notice.

It had been quick apparently, a stupid car accident. She doesn't know the details because one of Logan's drunken louts answered the phone and she didn't get the message until a week later after they'd sobered up. Now she was just ashamed to face the town that was like a second family to her. How could she when she didn't even show up at the hospital? She knew she would never forgive herself for that.

Her mother shouldn't be lying cold in the ground; she belongs in the Crap Shack trying to get Luke to watch a movie with her, while eating and drinking her weight in junk food and coffee. _She belongs with me_, she thought.

She doesn't know how many hours it's been, kneeling in the snow, but she finally got her body to move. She didn't want to but knew she had to because she remembered what her mother had said to her years ago.

***************

"You know, someday you'll be the Reigning Lorelai."

"I don't like that idea."

"Why not? You get a cape."

"Because if I'm the Reigning Lorelai, that means you'll be gone."

***************

Rory stood and placed a picture of her and Lorelai at the base of the gravestone. It was taken at a happier time in their lives where the only worries were that of Chilton, trying to get Luke to serve them more coffee, and, in Lorelai's case, Friday Night Dinners.

"Goodbye mum, I'm so sorry for... for everything."

And with that the Reigning Lorelai turned and walked away from the only true home her heart had ever known.

~***~

**Thats it. Sorry I killed Lorelai, I do like her but I had this idea in my head. RR please!**


End file.
